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UPDATED: County shelter allows adoptions without spaying or neutering

Animal Control Officer Tracy Clark looks over Tanner, a three-year-old shih-tzu, at Bay County Animal Control earlier this month. Tanner is currently up for adoption.

Andrew Wardlow / Chief Photographer

By Matthew Beaton / The News Herald

Published: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 at 09:21 AM.

PANAMA CITY — Though the county has been working to improve its animal shelter, it’s still not using the “best practice” on its spay and neuter policies, according to shelter experts.

Bay County brought in an outside shelter group this year to review its procedures after the state health department launched an investigation into its record-keeping and euthanasia practices, but the shelter group did not address the county’s sterilization policy. Under the policy, adult animals may leave the shelter without being spayed or neutered.

“The ideal best practice would be to ensure that every animal is spayed or neutered before it leaves the possession of the agency,” said Inga Fricke, director of Shelter and Rescue Group Services for the Humane Society of the United States.

Fricke said performing the operation before the animals exit the shelter ensures it gets done and said shelters should “lead by example.” The Humane Society estimates 2.7 million adoptable dogs and cats will be euthanized in shelters this year.

Bay County adopts out animals so long as the new owners leave a $100 deposit. In return, the county gives them a voucher, which can be taken to a veterinarian for the operation. Once done, the new owners can bring documentation to the county and get the deposit back. Just as easily, though, the new owners can forgo the surgery and forfeit the money, and the county doesn’t track whether they get the procedure done.

County spokeswoman Valerie Sale said she could not provide data on the number of animals that never wound up getting spayed or neutered.

The shelter is not set up for surgery and uses outside veterinarians for the operations. Lack of money is the main reason the shelter does not take all animals to be sterilized prior to going to their new homes, Sale said. It’s an issue of manpower, time and gasoline to transport the animals.

PANAMA CITY — Though the county has been working to improve its animal shelter, it’s still not using the “best practice” on its spay and neuter policies, according to shelter experts.

Bay County brought in an outside shelter group this year to review its procedures after the state health department launched an investigation into its record-keeping and euthanasia practices, but the shelter group did not address the county’s sterilization policy. Under the policy, adult animals may leave the shelter without being spayed or neutered.

“The ideal best practice would be to ensure that every animal is spayed or neutered before it leaves the possession of the agency,” said Inga Fricke, director of Shelter and Rescue Group Services for the Humane Society of the United States.

Fricke said performing the operation before the animals exit the shelter ensures it gets done and said shelters should “lead by example.” The Humane Society estimates 2.7 million adoptable dogs and cats will be euthanized in shelters this year.

Bay County adopts out animals so long as the new owners leave a $100 deposit. In return, the county gives them a voucher, which can be taken to a veterinarian for the operation. Once done, the new owners can bring documentation to the county and get the deposit back. Just as easily, though, the new owners can forgo the surgery and forfeit the money, and the county doesn’t track whether they get the procedure done.

County spokeswoman Valerie Sale said she could not provide data on the number of animals that never wound up getting spayed or neutered.

The shelter is not set up for surgery and uses outside veterinarians for the operations. Lack of money is the main reason the shelter does not take all animals to be sterilized prior to going to their new homes, Sale said. It’s an issue of manpower, time and gasoline to transport the animals.

The county has increased animal control spending by $343,888 (38 percent) this year, adding four full-time positions. The new positions will allow the county to take more animals to get sterilized before they leave the shelter, but the county has no plans to change its spay and neuter policy, Sale said.

“Historically we have — when we could — taken animals to the vet to get fixed,” she said.

The new owners still will have the option to not get the operation done on their own; many say they want their own vet to perform the operation.

Only one of 10 Florida counties similar in size to Bay uses the voucher system, according to News Herald inquiries. Nearby Okaloosa County is among the counties that does not use a voucher system, and instead requires adult animals be spayed or neutered before they leave the shelter.

The Okaloosa County shelter, run by Panhandle Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), had a voucher system until 1995, but it didn’t work, said director Dee Thompson. The deposit requirement couldn’t be made expensive enough to compel the new owners to get the spay or neuter surgeries on their own, she said.

“If we don’t get these spays and neuters done, then we’re never going to cut back on the numbers of euthanasias,” she said. “This leaves no room for error.”

Thompson has been with the shelter for 27 years and remembers the voucher system, which can be “very disheartening,” she said. She recalls working the front desk, seeing puppies adopted out on a voucher and later dropped off full grown and with a litter of puppies of their own.

“We saw it right in front of our own faces that the voucher system just wasn’t working; it didn’t have enough punch behind it to make these people go out and do it,” Thompson said.

She said not allowing animals to leave the shelter without being sterilized is the “most responsible” approach and her shelter has an on-site vet, which conducts the surgeries. She said the majority of shelters require the surgery before the animals leave and generally only smaller counties still use the voucher system, which is “very hard to enforce.”

The Humane Society of Bay County has a similar practice, adopting out animals only if they have been spayed or neutered. Adopting out animals on the voucher system is “risky,” said Terri Davidson, president of the organization. The standard animal-advocate philosophy is to maximize the number of dogs and cats that find new homes while limiting the number of future unwanted animals, Davidson said.

“It’s a two-fold thing; it’s all about adoption, but it’s also about getting them fixed,” she said.

State law

The county did not discuss its sterilization policy with the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine group — the group that reviewed the shelter — because it is in compliance with state law, Sale said.

The law requires the shelter and adopter to enter a written agreement that the animal will be sterilized in 30 days. Failure to comply means a noncriminal violation “punishable by a fine, forfeiture [of the animal], or other civil penalty,” in addition to the adopter losing the deposit, the law says. No specifics are given on what type of penalty should result or how — and what entity — should track the new owner.

The law “doesn’t direct how they will assure that the adopter complies. … It doesn’t dictate follow-up,” said Julie Levy, a veterinarian and director of the University of Florida’s Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program.

Levy said she recognizes the “weakness of voucher programs” and said the “neuter-before-adoption” policy is the best practice. She said voucher method requires the new owner to take several extra steps and procrastination often sets in.

“In our experience the animals that are not neutered promptly — it’s not because the people are actually refusing to do it and have decided to violate their adoption contract; it really is just not getting around to it,” Levy said.

Levy supports using the voucher system, however, when a shelter does not have the resources to get the operation done in a timely fashion. She said it’s not as urgent as avoiding the threat of imminent death in the shelter from parvovirus, distemper and other maladies.

“As much as I promote spay/neuter, we have to make sure it doesn’t put animals at risk for disease or death in a shelter,” she said.

An earlier version of this story is posted below:

PANAMA CITY — Though the county has been working to improve its animal shelter, it’s still not using the “best practice” on its spay and neuter policies, according to shelter experts.

This year Bay County brought in an outside shelter group to review its procedures after the state health department launched an investigation into its record-keeping and euthanasia practices, but the shelter group did not address the county’s sterilization policy. Under the policy, adult animals may leave the shelter without being spayed or neutered.

“The ideal best practice would be to ensure that every animal is spayed or neutered before it leaves the possession of the agency,” said Inga Fricke, director of Shelter and Rescue Group Services for the Human Society of the United States.

Fricke said performing the operation before the animals exit the shelter ensures it gets done and said shelters should “lead by example.”

The Humane Society estimates 2.7 million adoptable dogs and cats will be euthanized in shelters this year.
Bay County adopts out animals so long as the new owners leave a $100 deposit. In return, the county gives them a voucher, which can be taken to a veterinarian for the operation. Once done, the new owners can bring documentation to the county and get the deposit back. Just as easily, though, the new owners can forgo the surgery and forfeit the money, and the county doesn’t track whether they get the procedure done.

County spokeswoman Valerie Sale said she could not provide data on the number of animals that never wound up getting spayed or neutered.

The shelter is not set up for surgery and uses outside veterinarians for the operations. Lack of money is the main reason the shelter does not take all animals to be sterilized prior to going to their new homes, Sale said. It’s an issue of manpower, time and gasoline to transport the animals.

The county, however, just increased animal control spending by $343,888 (38 percent) this year, adding four full-time positions. The new positions will allow the county to take more animals to get sterilized before they leave the shelter, but the county has no plans to change its spay and neuter policy, Sale said.

“Historically we have — when we could — taken animals to the vet to get fixed,” she said.

The new owners still will have the option not to get the operation done on their own, many of whom say they want their own vet to perform the operation.